>> this is al jazeera. >> hello and welcome to the news hour. i'm steven cole in doha. coming up. mob justice in bangui. we're live in the capitol of the central african republic. are. revenge for the death of a taliban leader, attack leaves 22 pakistani soldiers death. >> i'm mary ann moore.

rallying on the right to protest. >> but first: a lynching. in the capitol of the central african republic. it's a sign the sectarian divide in the central african republic is becoming ever more dangerous. al jazeera as well as other media was there, when it took place. and we warn you, some people will find this video disturbing. it began when a mob heard that two men who were suspected of being part of another incident of sectarian violence, were nearby. the mob found the men, set upon them, killed them and then dragged the bodies through the streets burning them. the men were muslims, the mob was christian. >> we will continue to do this for as long as muslims will go

on. >> barnaby phillips is in the capitol. bangui. he joins me live. a dreadful example of mob violence barnaby but there were scenes on the streets in the morning. tell us about those. >> well, it was dreadful what happened, steven and maybe what's shocking particularly is that this was in broad daylight. in the center of bangui. as you said, two men who were accused by a christian crowd of having been accomplices to the killing of a christian man the day before, obviously there's no way we can verify this, were hunted down, hacked to pieces. chopped up if you like and set on fire at a prominent round-about in the city. whilst this was going on, french peace keepers arrived and then

cameroonian soldiers arrived and the crowd dispersed to some extent. butter it was still extremely hostile and volatile for some time. some shots were fired. we were warned not to take pictures there. and told to go away. it is dreadful, but i'm afraid it's just an example of the kind of thing that has been happening virtually on a daily basis, and not just in ga bangui. we've had reports of serious incidents in the towns and the northeast of the country as well. >> let's move away from the violence if we can barnaby and move towards a political process. the transitional president is due to be chosen tomorrow, fair amount of debate about just how much if any authority he's going to have. >> yes, and i don't think it

would be too much, too realistic to put great hope in whichever figure emerges. nevertheless it has been whittled down to two names. there are former sons of central african republic, that would be a warning if we had hoped for a clean break from the corrupt and disastrous politics that this country has suffered from for so many years, those hopes may not be realized. nonetheless we'll have to wait and see, in theory the selection will be made tomorrow morning, that's monday morning here in bangui and then this transitional president he or she should lead the country towards elections which are meant to take place in early 2015. i mean i think anyone who's been here finds the concept of free and fair elections, just absurd. there's no infrastructure, the state has broken down, there's absolutely no law and order.

it's quite obvious if things are to get better here there has to be an enormous humanitarian and indeed security input from the rest of the world. the rest of africa and wealthier parts of the world as well. >> that's the question, whether the rest of the world, and the rest of africa is going to sit up and take notice of c.a.r. punch up of negotiations are those reports true? >> well, it's been a fraught process, steven, as to the extent to which whether europe if you like will come the central african republic's rescue if you will there is an important meeting in brussels. there are hopes that there will be some sort of commitment for sending more troops. let me give you an idea of the numbers. there's a roundup to 5,000 of

african troops. and some french troops. that's a drop in the ocean of a vast country. whether they will be helped by more troops, it is fit to say that is a sincere hope of the beleaguered generals on the ground. >> thanks barnaby. south sudan's army saying it is ready to take the important town of malacal. keeps changing hands, the conflict of south sudan has been fought for weeks, between forces of president kiir and former vice president. >> nothing is left standing,

everything is burned. i'm going to introduce the governor of jongui state. describe what you have seen today. >> after going around, found lot of damage, lot of destruction. all the government offices are diswroid. they have destroyed all the computers. all the documents are scattered. wurnd. the shops are all broken. all the banks are broken. all the houses of the civilian are all looted and there is nothing good in the town. so i believe the people come back to the places in the town they will have a very difficult

life. >> the pakistani taliban, worst strike on the military since the taliban leader was killed last september and puts doubts on peace talks. the city of banu close to pakistan's tribal belt. >> the men were on their way when their convoy was attacked. the soldiers were part of a military buildup in the region following u.s. drone strikes. a statement issued by the pakistani taliban, called it revenge. to his right is massud the taliban leader who was killed in a drone strike in november. the taliban statement reads: the deposit of pakistan with the help of the americans first killed raman and then our leader massu drveg. the pakistani government is not

serious about holding peace talks or else it wouldn't have undergone this attack. the taliban says it killed the mern over the network's negative -- men over the network's negative. one of the groups came on the same network and said this: >> translator: we attacked the express news team because the network is involved in propaganda against us. if this continues then so will our attacks. >> reporter: a vigil was held in karachi. violence is a clear sign the taliban rejects the state's offer of peace talks. >> i have come here to express my anger on those people who says that we want to the negotiate with those terrorists who have accepted the responsibility of the murder of workers.

i think the government should make a difference, very clearly, and announce it, that what is their policy? >> the fact that they want to talk with the militants who are just not prepared, and instead of the state showing its strength, it is completely exposing its weakness and helplessness. >> the government says it still wants to hold talks with the taliban. but public anger over its inaction to deal with the violence is growing. ali mustafa, al jazeera. >> there have been clashes on the streets of the ukrainian capitol kiev. more on that story and more from europe, let's cross to mary anne. >> thousands have converged on

independence square in kiev. firing tear gas at demonstrators. protests have rocked here for more than two months here, sparked by victor yanukovych's decision to not create ties with european union. >> first of all, we reject, voting by hand, secondly we declare early presidential elections. and we will hold a vote to support this initiative. the members of the central election commission have to be changed in order for this election to be fair and clear. >> well, jennifer glasse joins us from kiev live now. jennifer, are clashes still ongoing? >> reporter: well, right here in independence square it is very peaceful. about 400 meters that way i just saw a couple of flash grenades

go off. nataly klichko just led a demonstration, they have set a bus on fire. the police are throwing flash grenades. the protestors are throwing fire crackers. dragged some demonstrators off from the cordon. pretty serious confrontation going off right now. earlier today, tens of thousands of protestors gathered in this square. a few thousand of them have now moved off and are clark with police. they are around this square hundreds of riot police in buses, trying to keep the protest contained to indians independence square. >> jennifer, the protest began

peacefully on sunday, can you give me a sense of how many protestors this large number are involved in these scustles with police and the d rks -- scuffles with police and who that tends to mean for protestors? >> there has been a big divide here in this square. some protestors are frustrated after eight weeks they've seen really no progress here and they feel that they have to take things 52 their own hands -- into their own hands. opposition leaders tried earlier today to dissuade them from doing it. nataly klichko stood and talked to some of these more radical supporters, quite a few minutes, trying to convince them not to march on parliament, it isn't even in session on sunday

evening in kiev. that isn't the issue. for the first time today the crowds actually booed and jeered the opposition leaders and called for real leadership, a single leader. there have been three opposition leaders at the head of all of these protests for the last eight weeks. and they want one solid leader to emerge and the lack of a solid leader has also meant a lack of a real strategy, the lack of a real plan here. and so protestors who have been spending days and nights in the bitter, bitter cold winter are very frustrated. they want to see some plan. and of course the stakes have been raised higher, when the law that president yanukovych signed on friday, that severely limits human rights and speech here, prompts the feeling that the police will try and clear the square here. >> jennifer glasse, thank you. that's its for me in london,

there's much more coming up in the news hour. >> i'm rory talens in london. sunday service with a difference, george isn't invited. >> that's what it's looking like from london. but also on the news hour from doha. taking a stand genetics domestic worker abuse, are workers burned beaten and tortured. details from the australian open coming up. a spokesman for iraqi ministry of defense is saying armed forces have launched an offensive against terrorists in the city of ramadi. omarar al sala reports.

>> tribal fighters in ramadi, western iraq. the armed forces backed by tribal gunmen known as their awakening councils, al qaeda linked of iraq and the levant, i.s.i.l. prime minister says they are eunteunited behind him. >> forcing al qaeda to come out so that we can strike them. >> but this is not how these fighters and many residents of anbar see it.

took up arms to defend their areas, antiprotest cite in ramadi, islamic state of iraq and the levant were able to control parts of ramadi, they are still present in a number of areas in the two cities. sunnies started their anti-government protest in december 2012 in six provinces. accusing the shiite government of secon sectarianism and marginalizing them. that's why the people of fallujah and ramadi say they refuse to allow the army to enter their areas. the government then said the protest movement was infiltrated by al qaeda and members of the former regime. iraq's crisis is also linked to the war in syria. al qaeda groups come to border

with syria which allows them free movement. critics of prime minister maliki says he is using this fight for political reensd to boost his -- reasons to boost his image. >> three palestinians have been seriously wounded. a charge in the area was also hit by shrapnel from the rocket. those hit were responsible for recent rocket attacks. former egyptian president mohamed morsi has been charged with insulting the judiciary. he also faces allegation in connection with the killing of protestors, haz-mat and ha mast.

joining a terrorist group allegations which al jazeera say are fabricated. the other two journalists are from our sister stations. they have been detained for the past five months. the free syrian army has responded to the peace talks. the fsa says bin laden must play no future in syria's future. >> we support any solution, that fulfills the syrian people's demands. we support the brothers going to geneva. bashar al-assad and his government should resign.

humanitarian corridors must be open. >> orthodox christians in eastern europe has been celebrating epiphany. let's go back to marion in london. >> yes, epiphany celebrates the baptism of jesus in the river jordan. to symbolically wash away one's sins. not everyone of course believes a dip in icy water can cleanse their sins. atheism is widespread in europe. one in five people in the european union, according to a recent poll, does not believe in a life force. benefits of organized religion,

rory went to an atheist service in london. >> they are expecting a full house. the band doing a run through and making sure there's enough seating for the 400-strong congregation. some have come a very long way. >> i've come from australia. i think the sense of community is wonderful. and i'm really looking forward to the service. >> i came here on vaca, it funds really fun, really exciting, i love the whole thing that church will give you, but i'm not religious. >> reporter: for anyone who's been to a christian church service there's much familiar here, songs readings and community, it's just that god hasn't been invited. there is a palpable buzz to this assembly and i think what that shows is despite the criticisms that have been leveled against it, maybe it's just a glorified

karaoke session, but there's a sense for people of low religious sensibility to come together. >> this is the perfect answer to the movement's critics according to the spokesman. >> there are going to be another 100 in september. it's not just the service. it is the book clubs. it's the volunteering, it's people's lives being changed. it's amazing when you get people who want to celebrate life, people will move mountains. >> sam nightingale is enthusiastic but says the movement has a lot of catching up to do before it can compete with religion. >> talking about christian faith and church, a lot of time

building up wonderful buildings and ceremony. this has been going on for a year. >> looking around the audience, the appeal hasn't spread too much between the fairly affluent white educated urban base. that is something there organizers will have to address if it's to have any enduring mass appeal but they're spreading the word and enjoying the opportunity. rory jerens, al jazeera london. the number of people gathered in that particular assembly, obviously this isn't something that is widespread but nevertheless as we were hear from rory's report there, gatherings like this book clubs it seems something gathering in appeal at least. >> what people often wants are the same things that religion provides. a sing along, homily, whatever. some people who identify

themselves as atheist, say we want that, not the religion bit. it is a tiny portion of people as already been said, it's very much white, educated middle class. i suspect it will say that way for no other reason, british people and maybe also americans don't like to identify themselves as atheist because it sounds a bit negative. this is actually aiming to get rid of this negative connotation. >> it can be anyone that just wants to get together and feel a sense of connectedness, a sense of community. >> i think that's right. the person who actually co-founded this, she was an agnostic. they use the term atheist, i don't know to what degree they will be able to have a philosophy of mere existence in life. if people enjoy this sort of thing that's up to them. when i go to church it's not just the beautiful music or the

wonderful homilies and the wonderful community, it's fundamentally the relationship to christ. and that's something fundamentally missing from that. >> we can't be totally sure about that can you? you used to be an atheist yourself. you must relate to what many of these people do, i guess. just to enjoy a gathering of like minded people. >> to a certain extent. perhaps i'm a bit too british to have a sing along -- think a sing-along is attractive. perhaps my sunday mornings are for sleep rather than going out. if they enjoy it that's fine. but the fundamental core of religion that people want and need is our relationship with god and that's what fundamentally missing from this. >> peter williams, good to get your take on this. i'll be back in a little while

with more from europe including: >> i'm lawrence lee in hungary. this ridicule lil village lost up to 50 people to the nazis during the second world war. plus we have a snoop around the multimillion dollar center the u.s. has been using to spy on just about everybody. and jamaica looks set to return to the winter olympics. we'll hear from the captain of their bobsled team, in sport. and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... >> parkinson's forced his wife to type his novels. >> not only was i typing badly, but i was hallucinating... >> now, a revolutionary proceedure is giving is giving this best selling author a second chance >> it was a wondrerful moment... >> after the implant, they

turned the juice on, and... >> emily & martin cruz smith on talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america >> a jazeera america is the only news channel that brings you live news at the top of every hour >> here are the headlines at this hour breaking news... sports... business... weather... live news...every hour, on the hour only on al jazeera america

>> i'm phil torres, coming up this week on techknow... >> a mystery, deep in the heart of the rain forrest >> we haven't seen something actually build them... >> it's been really frustrating >> it's a spidery clue that has our team of scientests stumped... join our journey to peru... then, it looks like chicken, tastes like chicken,

>> that's good.... >> but it's not... the foamy inovation that's making hardcore meat eaters happy. >> techknow on al jazeera america real reporting that brings you the world. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. >> welcome back, a reminder of the top stories here on al jazeera. two muslim men have been lynched for killings in bangui for latest example of sectarian violence in the country. the pakistani taliban says it's behind an attack which killed at least 22 soldiers. attacked happened inside an army compound. the bomb inside a car carrying security forces. thousands of pro-eu protestors in the ukraine.

the government's refusal to sign a trade deal, the government has instead signed trade deals with russia. thousands of people have marched on hong kong's police hazardous to demand better conditions. an indonesian made was maltreated by her employer. thousands of people fed up with domestic worker abuse in hong kong have marched around police headquarters. they want to make sure there are no more cases like this. ariana who returned home to indonesia this week bruised and battered. she says she was beaten, burns and tortured by her employer for eight months in hong kong. >> translator: based on our medical records she was subjected to intense heat. most of the bruises are on the legs face and arms and she's in

very weak condition. >> workers half of them from indonesia, by law, all foreign helpers have to live with their employers. and indonesiaians are treated like ghosts. >> i would say slaifs like and vulnerable to bruce and vulnerable to exploitation. >> agencies say they were not aware of the problems until she returned home. the police accused the agency of not providing enough evidence. >> justice for domestic workers! >> reporter: another woman came forward saying she had been abused by the same employer. >> they beat me really hard. sometimes they would use their hands or feet or feather duster.

>> the government promised to step up their monitoring of agencies. they'll find a family distraught at what happened and a woman barely recognizable to the one who moved to hong kong hoping for a better living. caroline malone, al jazeera. flooding has forced more than 30,000 others to flee from their homes. many parts of the city is inundated. most of those who died either drown or were electrocuted. blasts moments apart happened at the victory monument. landmark, antigovernment protestors have blocked more than a week ago. veronica pedrosa is there.

>> victory monument, one of the many intersections in bangkok, there is a stage for antigovernment protestors to deliver speeches and hold music. and it was at lunch time just behind the main stage when a first explosive device went off, causing a crowd that was bust bustling around looking for food. that's when a second explosive device went off. there are lots of police now investigating the scene. forensic scientists looking for physical clues here that might lead them to who's behind this attack and others. because this is the latest in a series of bombings and shootings that are pretty minor, however, they are causing an atmosphere of fear about coming to these protests. about what lies ahead in thailand's political future.

>> in many parts of europe economic crises has fueled resentment against immigrants and other ethnic minority groups particularly the roma of eastern europe. let's go to mariana in london. >> they are also known as rowe i but many refer to themselves as gypsies. now europe's largest minority, also found in canada, the u.s. and south america. reached a peak during world war ii, in 1935, roma living if nazi germany was stripped of their citizenship and sent to concentration camps.

today the persecution continues and they remain on the fringe of the society. in the first of a three part series, lawrence lee reports, can the roma of eastern europe integrate? >> this is athe pretty town in northern slovakia. plenty to see for the tourists, who don't look at the local roma that wand around looking for food in the bins. >> they are not working. >> nf sloenough sloa slovacs thy people look at them like monkeys in the zoo.

we're okay says this old man until the whites get drunk and come here. on every level, these people are under attack. this happens over and over again. roam arizona communities are forced way beyond the boundaries of the town but are accused of not wanting to integrate. they consider themselves very moderate but look like a bunch of fa fascists. the slovacs paid the nazis to get rid of them. ula and yosef, having a half roma baby. >> better i will have i don't know, man with dark skin who will not drink who will be kind

to me, than the white one who will drink or beat me or something like that. >> sanctioned by the public move, was by that church. here the roma people are offered all sorts of support. helps them integrate in social as well as spiritual ways. they made me more confident, they have shown me even though i'm gypsy i can move forward. they prayed for me. if you want to know what's really possible, look at this model village, in southwestern germany. they produced so much food last year that they took tons of it off to the poor in the capital budapest. most surprising of all, this is where the roma were taken tot death camps in germany. in 1942. >> our philosophy is that hungary is not black or white. hungary is beautiful because it is colorful.

everybody wants to be human. >> there are few examples of this but one who says the roma and the europeans cannot integrate, cannot be true. it's the fact of believing it to be true. lawrence lee, al jazeera. can't work or won't work? lawrence lee looks at unemployment and attitudes, from the roma. that's the news from london now, back to doha. >> welcome back to doha. you know, president obama, proposed steps to collect data by the national security agency. but those steps don't go far enough. rob reynolds reports, activists far from washington are taking matters into their own hands.

>> reporter: if you have wondered where the national security agency stores all that data it collects, well, you are looking at it. this is the utah data center in bluffdale, a 92,000 square meter complex completed last september at ocost of $1.5 billion. robert banford has studied the nsa for decades. >> it is designed to hold information, the phone calls, the e-mail, the metadata, everything it collects, it needs a place to store it and that's what bluffdale is for. you can sort of think of it as nsa's external hard drive. >> reporter: the nsa declined a request for an interview. but in bluffdale population about 8,000 most people don't have any qualms about their neighbor, the spy agency. >> it's an important mission. they get information from around the world. and my understanding that they

study it here. >> if you can't trust your government, to do the proper thing, what can you trust? >> but in the wake of former nsa contractor edward snowden's revelations, a nationwide movement is building to reig ren the nsa using constitutional powers in the state. connor is president of the utah think tank. >> state's and cities are not required to help the government. if we wanted to we could oppose what the nsa is doing. >> reporter: here in utah the nsa's foes think they've found its ultimate weakness. come up with an audacious yet perfectly legal plan to cripple the state of the equipment. they want to turn off the water

supply. to keep the equipment cool, it needs gallons of water a day. legally, utah could stop the flow and the result: >> if the nsa did not have water it could not cool its servers and could not operate its servers. could not mine and store and sift through all that data. >> activists plan to put a no cooperation with the nsa bill before the legislature in the near future. similar bills have been proposed in other states, including california and washington. robert reynolds, al jazeera, bluffdale, utah. >> could another mini ice age be on the way? the sun has reached its solar mamaximum. instead of spewing out flares, the sun is strangely quiet. scientists say it hasn't done that in over a century.

there was a similar silent period in the 17th industry which coincided with bitterly cold winters. explaining all of this is aastronomer seth sostack, with seti. >> there were very few sun spots. this is as you say the sun's peak of activity, and it's like a restaurant downtown on a saturday night. you expect activity and if you don't get it something's wrong. well, the sun is quiet but it might, yes, it might result in very strict winters in europe. because europe's weather is dependent on the gulf stream. and that's you know, that's a high altitude jetstream of air. up in the stratosphere that heads over the atlantic and influences the wealth in europe. the reduced activity on the sun

results in a reaction of the ultimate sproilultraviolate lig. causing arctic air to plunge down, and skate on the canals and rivers, which happened in the late 17th century. the chances this would happen in europe are maybe 1 in 10, probably no more than that. this is peak of the solar cycle, you expect solar flares, big storms on the sun which can have deleterious effects on the earth as well, that is not happening now but of course that could change. we don't understand the details of how the sun's activity is regulated. it depends on these churning motions below the surface. in about five to 6 billion years yes it will happen, the sun will run out of fuel, it will begin to expand, it will get a thousand times brighter than it already is, boiling away the

oceans, ruining your day. the ultimate fate of the earth is to spiral into the sun and get burned up. but that's 5 to 6 billion years off. >> that's good news. why diners in china are shying away from shark fins. australian open, details with joan in a moment.

>> a time to enter the world of sport.

and jo will take you through it. >> steven, thank you. we start with a huge upset at the australian open. serena williams have been knocked out of the are tournament in melbourne. she came against ana ivanovic. winning two sets to one, ending williams run of 25 consecutive match wins to reach the finals. >> i kept swinging and i really believed in it, to have that victory it's amazing. we all know what kind of tournament she is and when we were starting the match we were talking about all her grand slam totals, it was quite impressive. >> i guess the secret is out, i obviously wasn't hitting the way i normally would hit, not moving the way i would normally hit, making a lot of errors i wouldn't normally make, in the last couple of years.

but it's okay, i know for a fact i can play so much better than what i did today. >> noaa vanovak djokovic dispatd 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. on to the course of the finals. barcelona will be looking to put daylights between themselves and two other rivals. real madrid bettered 5-nil on saturday. andy richardson reports. >> all layered up and ready for yet another world class outing. christian reynaldo didn't take long to live up to his world class status. bettered this time out.

renaldo looks capable of beating on his own. but has one or two teammates to call on as well. outfoxoutfoxing stefan anderson. the contest was all but over by half time. benzamar, making it 3-nil. actual a step ahead of bet bett. renaldo was super-juiced, final goal of the game, dismissive finish, it ended 5-nil. lowcarlo angeloti's team. keep up the pressure if they manage to pick up three points

against avia in the late game. quest to qualify for the champions league, up 2-nil in the first 20 minutes but fought back to tie the game. sanchez scoring the crucial equalizer. in english premier league, totnam beat swanseathrough3-1. it's totenham's third win in a row. they play manchester united. pablo lorazobal has won the aabu dhabi open.

birdie on the last the first victory in over two years. lifetime bans over match fixing, the players from several companies are holding a tribunal. >> the international cricket council's anticorruption council is hearing arguments. it's the biggest domestic sporting event in this country by far. those who are found guilty could face lifetime banning from the game. among those accused is english cricket player darren stevenson. stevens. he has tearfully admitted to the

media that he has done a few bad things. eventually becoming the captain of the national team. the whole thing has left a sour taste for fans i in bangladesh. indian league, seems it cannot keep their hands clean. >> third test in chaja. they close day 4133 to 5. lead of 220 runs with five wicts iwicket cetera atwickets at han.

check out aljazeera.com/sports. let us know how you like our new look. the portland trail blazers beat the dallas mavericks, trailed early, the pacers seized control by the earned of the first quarter and led for whole game. paul george was the star of the show. mvp bagged 36 points, pacers cruise to their fourth win in a row, final score 106 to 92. a bobsledding team from jamaica looks to be heading to the sochi winter olympics. the two man team has qualified but funding remains a serious problem. they need to raise $80,000 to cover travel and equipment costs. it will be the first time

jamaica has competesince 2006. he says he was inspired to return to the sport partly by a movie made about jamaica's four man team who were a representative of their country in calgary in 1998. >> first when i get into retirement i said, you know, a part of my life is gone. and you know i sat down and i was thinking about it a lot. and i know, keep watching the movie, cool running, over and over again, on television. and it brings back so much inspiration to my life, you know? and so much thought. you know, it pushed way down into me. and knowing that jamaica has so much of the best athlete in the world. we know for a fact on the 2002 game we used to have the fastest start on ice. we didn't have the thing to win

an olympic medal. the thing is that's what that really pushes me out of retirement. it is a funding problem from the beginning of the season and we really scrambled through and get through all this qualification and up to until today we're still scrambling to get to sochi. i'm really happy about it. you never want to say you're going to win an olympic medal. the thing is this sport is so close it is like a hundredth of a second, two, 3-hundreds of a second. you know for a fact you train for four years and you can combine all of this training together and if you go out there with your time to slide on the ice and execute it, the result will come. so we all -- we going to approach this olympics as the underdog, because the world know what the jamaican team is cable of doing. >> that's all the sports for

today, steven. >> all right jo. cool running indeed. a government ban on a controversial delicacy at state functions is now being adopted by some restaurants and hotels. >> any attempt to document the product is met with stiff resistance. brutal nature of shark-finning and the sheer number that are killed, shark fin is considered by chinese one of the eight treasured foods from the sea. until recently it was served at state functions weddings and business difference as a sign of wealth and prosperity. but the government banned the delicacy at state functions and that has had a profound effect.

china's ministry of commerce says the ban has led to a decline in shark fin consumption by as much as 70%. that's hit traders and restaurateurs hard. major asian distribution like china and hong kong. the trade has been decimated. >> translator: in the recent times the sale volume dropped all off. people are more concerned about environmental protection. it has dropped about 30% compared with previous years. >> while the trade isn't illegal in hong kong it's about to become less profitable. in mainland china local restaurant owners are also losing their taste for shark fin soup. >> translator: we have stopped selling shark fin in our restaurants. it's too brutal for the animals if we continue to sell the shark

fin. we hope to arouse more social awareness among our customers to do so. >> scientists estimate 100 million sharks were killed for their trade, earning the trade more than $1 billion. government ban and further support from restaurants and hotels could save the species. >> the ban mass contributed to the shark fin sales drop in china. the number will continue to decline if the situation remains. >> shark advocates are taking advantage of the government ban, with a new social media educational campaign in china over the lunar new year holiday. they say if they don't act now, the gains made in the last six months could be lost if the government continues its cost-cutting measures. craig gleason, al jazeera, beijing. >> stay tuned.

i'll be fieding yo guiding you r half hour of news in just a few seconds. >> everybody's different here... >> for students at the esteemed international high school at lafayette everyday is a fight to suceeed >> it was my dream to get a high school diploma >> but a failing grade can mean loosing it all... >> i don't know how my life would look, if i would get deported... >> will they make it in america? >> i have a chance... >> i learn america

>> all this week, >> the strength of our future relies on education. >> we are creating a class of ...we are creating a class of mediocre education. >> stealing education,

part of our week long, in depth series. america tonight only on al jazeera america good afternoon to you. welcome to al jazeera america. i am morgan radford, live from new york city. here are the stories we are following for you right now: tens of thousands clash with police in ukraine defying the ban on protests. we are live in kiev. anti-government protesters in thailand, bombs injured more than 200 people. new allegations at another accusation of political payback. >> i am live in west virginia. we are following what's happening on the ground with the water supply. residents still very concerned coming up on al jazeera america.